1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a lighting apparatus for vehicles having two primary headlights for visible low beam and high beam illumination and a light function for infrared light.
2. Description of the Background Art
Motor vehicles are equipped in a known fashion with lighting systems for generating low and high beam illumination. With the high beam lights turned on, an extended visual range is illuminated for the driver of the vehicle; however, the high beams have to be switched off for oncoming traffic to avoid blinding the driver of the oncoming vehicle. The now engaged low beam lights illuminate a substantially smaller visual range for the driver so that possible obstacles in the roadway are illuminated too late for the motorist to detect. A remedy is found with a conventional headlamp device for vehicles according to EP-B-0 479 634. Behind a shared lens, the headlamp has a reflector for the visible low beam light and a reflector for visible and infrared high beam light. A rotatable infrared-filter makes it possible to switch between visible and infrared high beam light. An infrared camera attached to the vehicle captures the area that is illuminated by the infrared light bundle to be displayed on a display screen mounted within the visual field of the driver of the vehicle. Thus, even with the low beam lights turned on, the driver of the vehicle can detect obstacles early on the display screen without blinding the driver of an oncoming vehicle. In order to reduce the undesirable red light image of the IR high beam headlight, that is, to receive the image of a white light, visible light can bypass the filter (EP-A-1 139 011).
From DE-C-39 32 216 a lighting device for vehicles is known, whereby the primary headlights include two light modules each, respectively being arranged in an opening in the body of the vehicle. It is common with lighting devices such as these that the two light modules of the primary headlights respectively share a mutual headlamp carrier. A light module of the primary headlights generates the visible low beam light, whereas the other light module has a slidable IR-filter, which allows switching to infrared, that is, visible high beam light.
The disadvantage of the two lighting devices for vehicles according to EP-B-0 479 634 and DE-C-39 32 216 is that the primary headlights can only be used with lighting devices that have infrared light.